TaNgLeD
by justsmile77
Summary: Two souls, one cat. When Mosskit's soul is flung into a living kit's body, the two become inexplicably entwined. Tangle is an ordinary kit with an insatiable curiosity. Mosskit has a need for perfection. With the streets in chaos, order must be found and a Clan made. But can these two kits unite themselves and a Clan? Sometimes, things just get a little, well, tangled.
1. Prologue

Prologue

_The kit padded silently through the starlit forest. She felt so alone here. Sure, she had her family and there were other kits her age to play fight with and mice to hunt, but what was the point? It didn't matter how many mice she ate or how many scuffles she won, she didn't get any bigger, or more muscular, or more graceful. _

_ If she had grown up, she might have been all of those things, she didn't know, no cat knew. But, instead, she was here in this beautiful limbo- stuck._

"_S-s-stuck." She sounded out. "Dead."_

_Instinctively, she wrinkled her nose at that word. Dead meant cold stones and stiff bodies. Blunt, colorless, it didn't suit her bright soul at all. Stuck, however, described her perfectly. She couldn't go anywhere, she couldn't grow up. She was stuck._

"_I am stuck." She stated to the empty forest._

"_You're _dead._" Came a sharp reply._

_The black and white kit whipped her head around. "Who's there?" She asked, cursing herself for the slight tremor in her voice. She was dead, what was there to worry about?_

_ A cat stepped out of the shadows in front of her. "Surely you remember who I am?" _

_The she-kit blinked as she filtered through her memories of all the cats that she had met, brown matted fur, maleficently wise eyes, she'd barely seen him in life, but…_

"_You're the one who caused my death!" She accused, pinning her ears back as she crouched. "You're Goosefeather." _

_The now-named cat nodded. "Indeed I am Goosefeather." He wheezed. "But I did not cause you to die; you never should have been born. It was your mother's fault you died; she brought you into this world and if she hadn't, you never would have lived, and if you never lived, you can't die."_

_ "There are plenty of good half-clan cats!" The young cat retorted after his confusing speech. "My sister is a great deputy, and so was my brother, and-"_

_ "Of course they are! They are strong unlike you. When I said you never should have been born, I meant _you _never should have been born. You are weak, and only the strongest survive!" The brown furred tom spat._

_ Saliva was now dripping from the crazed cat's mouth, disappearing as it hit the forest floor, as all unsavory things did in StarClan._

_ "I'll show you weak!" she shrieked, pouncing. _

_Goosefeather simply batted her aside. "Hush, I'm not finished."_

"_What-"_

"_I can make you live." He meowed._

"_What?"_

"_I can make you live." He repeated._

_For all of her doubt, the kit was intrigued. She stepped forward uncertainly, the only sign the older cat needed and bounded off. The small kit followed as fast as she could on her short legs._

_They ran beside the Dark Forest and StarClan border until they came to a small clearing. It was surrounded by a thick wall of brambles, reeds, and tall grass. There was an opening on left side of the clearing, across from the one the two cats had entered from. On the far side of the clearing, there was a dark, bramble tunnel._

_ "What is this place?" The kit mewed._

"_This is where newly dead cats are judged. They either go to the Dark Forest, or they go to StarClan. Only cats that died for their Clan get to bypass this, as you did. Over there is the tunnel that leads to the Dark Forest." The tom flicked his tail to the left. "And where we entered goes to StarClan."_

_The black spotted kit looked questioningly at the dark tunnel at the end of the clearing._

"_That," The tom answered. "Is the Tunnel of Stars. You remember walking up it when you died, don't you?"_

_ Indeed the kit could remember. She had followed her mother's sister up the tunnel, batting her fluffy white tail, leaving her mother's calls for her father and farther behind until they faded completely. The tunnel had been filled with stars and some had even rained down upon her, giving her the sparkling quality that all StarClan cats had. _

"_Do you think I could go down it?" She asked the old tom, eyeing the entrance cautiously. Surely living again couldn't be that easy, there had to be a catch._

"_Why don't you try, Mosskit?"_


	2. Chapter 1

Tangle opened her eyes, and blinked. The first thing she saw was broken glass sparkling in the early morning sun reflecting light onto the walls and into her eyes so she had to squint to see.

Carefully, she stood up and wobbled across the cement over to the glittering pile and nosed it. The glass tinkled as it shifted, delighting the young kit who patted it with her paw to make the noise again.

"Tangle! Get away from there at once before you-"

Tangle squealed as her paw slipped on the glass and cut it.

In one leap, the blue queen was by her kit's side gently licking her injured paw.

"There, there." consoled the queen in between licks. "I know it stings, but it's only a cut, so from now on don't touch glass alright, my precious?"

The kit sniffled and nodded. The queen carried her back under the green dumpster to groom her ruffled white and black spotted fur.

Tangle's sister, Wisp, had opened her eyes as well and they stared at each other with their kit-blue eyes, marveling at this new sense, sight. They memorized each other's pelts with wonder. Wisp was blue, like their mother, Tangle noted.

"What happened, Tangle?" Wisp asked.

"I saw this shiny stuff and went over to touch it but it bit me for no good reason!" Tangle huffed, squirming out from her mother's grooming, pelt still ruffled. The queen, seeing that her tongue was no match for a lively kit with thick fur, resigned herself to grooming her tail while her daughters played with and empty can, batting it back and forth and trying to pounce on it when it rolled away from them.

"Mama? Can we go hunting with you?" mewed Tangle as she clumsily stalked a cockroach, tail waving wildly.

"No, you two can't keep up with me yet." Their mother meowed over her shoulder as she padded out from the dumpster to the entrance of the alley.

"We could ride on you back!" Wisp suggested hopefully.

"Yes!" Tangle agreed excitedly. "We could sit really still and watch you hunt and then we could learn how to hunt by watching you!"

"Prey is already hard enough to find without two rambunctious kits on my back and besides, I will show you how to hunt when you are three moons old." their mother stated with an air of finality. "Now go back to your nests and don't leave this alley." With that, the queen darted around the corner and was gone.

"What should we do now?" Wisp wondered aloud.

"Explore!" Her sister answered, already climbing onto a pile of junk near the dumpster.

Wisp quickly followed, first hopping onto a broken chair, then scaled some shiny black pelts that smelled funny. When they had both reached the peak of "Stink Hill" as they'd dubbed it, the two sisters looked around in awe at their small world.

To the right of them was their dumpster, under which they made their nests from paper, in front of that was the pile of glass. Three tail-lengths from them was the entrance to the alley, and seven tail-lengths from them was a wooden fence, marking the end of their territory. The alley itself was wedged between two brick twoleg nests that remained mostly unused and scattered around the alley were bits of twoleg junk and the weird smelling black pelts. That was all.

"It's so big!" breathed Tangle in awe. How did her mother walk more than this every day? The 7 day old kit felt tired just thinking about it!

"Race you to the bottom!" Wisp squealed, picking her way down from the hill.

Broken from her thoughts, Tangle was about to reply with her own challenge when…

_WHUMP! _ Tangle felt something hit her with enough force to have fallen from the stars and she lost her footing, tumbling down the slope, having the air knocked out of her when she hit the pavement with a soft thud, only a mouse-length from the broken glass.

"You win." meowed Wisp sullenly.

"Wh-what pushed me?" gasped Tangle, who was flopped on the ground gasping for air like a fish.

"Nothing pushed you, you fell. Are you okay?"

"My whole body hurts." Tangle moaned. "And my head feels like it's about to-"

The spotted kit was interrupted by her own whimper and started shivering.

"About to what? About to what!" Wisp prodded her sister worriedly, but she was no longer conscious. Tangle had curled into a tight ball with a grimace frozen on her face, her chest quickly rising and falling with her rapid breaths. The blue kit carefully dragged her away from the glass, afraid her sister would thrash in her sleep and laid down next to her and began her long watch, hoping their mother would be back soon and know what to do.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors.**

**Please note: Since the cats in this story live around Twolegs, they know the Twoleg term for some things such as couch, paper, glass, ect.**

**And that's chapter 1, folks!**

**Thank you xImagine Thatx, Anonymous Fishy, and starwings22 for the reviews! You made this chapter come out a lot faster with your support. **


	3. Chapter 2

_Tangle slowly opened her eyes and sat up. Where am I? Tangle's thoughts seemed to echo around the open glen. Above her, the stars twinkled down unhelpfully. As she took in her surroundings, she noticed that she was standing in front of a long, dark tunnel; made by what she thought might be plant material. Tangle had only seen trees and the occasional flower or weed in her short life in Twolegplace, she hardly knew what a plant was. There were two more tunnels, one on each side of her also made of plants._

"_Hello?" The small black and white kit sunk her tiny claws into the dirt, relishing the feeling of soft grass beneath her paws. "Anybody here? "_

"_There you are, Mosskit! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Exclaimed a blue she cat as she stepped out of the trees._

_Who's Mosskit? Tangle mused. "Mama?" she mewed uncertainly, then blinked in surprise when her voice echoed like two cats had spoken. What was going on? Was she dreaming?_

_As the she cat came closer, Tangle stepped back in surprise. This cat wasn't her mother; she had blue eyes instead of her mother's warm amber._

_The queen seemed to realize this too, for she gave the kit a puzzled look and backed away. "Who are you? You smell different."_

_The black spotted kit was about to answer when she felt like her fur was being ripped from her skin. First the pain stared in her forepaws, next her chest and body, and then finally going down her tail. What's going on? What's happening to me? She thought, screeching in pain. Then,_ _a cat literally stepped _out_ of her._

_Panting, she turned to her right, eyes widening at what she saw. Standing beside her, was an exact duplicate of herself. They looked at each other blue eye to blue eye, with their black spotted pelts fluffing out at the same time. It was like looking into a reflection._

_The three stood in shocked silence for a few heartbeats, the queen looking from Tangle to Mosskit, and back again. Mosskit and Tangle just stared at each other, Tangle having to look slightly up because of Mosskit's height._

"_I see that my theory worked." came a raspy voice. "The results are different than I suspected but still, Mosskit is living." A mangy brown tom walked out of the shadows where he had been waiting in silence. _

_The blue queen broke the silence first. "Goosefeather, what is the meaning of this? Why are there two Mosskits? What do you mean that she's living?" She queried, blue eyes narrowed._

"_Mosskit has an unfulfilled destiny, Bluestar. I felt it the moment she died, like something had been undone. We must tie it up before it becomes tangled with other cats' destinies!" argued the tom._

_Mosskit's ears pricked. "I have a destiny? What is it? What do I need to do?"_

"_Yes, I don't know, and I don't know." Goosefeather replied._

"_So you just sent my daughter into the Tunnel of Stars without consulting the rest of StarClan? This could cause chaos if any dead cat can just strut down the tunnel and be tied to a living cat!"_

"_That's exactly why I did not consult StarClan." The tom stated smugly. "It would have caused chaos, just like you said. Better it be a secret and see if this little experiment works out than have everyone know-"_

_Mosskit prickled indignantly. "An experiment? Is that all I am to you?"_

_Tired of being ignored, Tangle spoke up. "What do I have to do with this? Is this a dream? Why do you have weird names?"_

_The brown cat seemed to finally notice Tangle sitting awkwardly beside her bristling twin._

"_For you, yes this is a dream." He spoke with a squeaky voice that he thought sounded friendly to a kit. "You are just going to be her host so she can fulfill her destiny." He nodded to a glowering Mosskit. _

"_Our names aren't weird!" she burst out._

"_What about my destiny? Can I have one too?" Tangle asked, ignoring her look-alike._

"_Your destiny is to do what Mosskit tells you to do." Goosefeather offered sarcastically. "Now close your eyes."_

_Tangle hesitantly obeyed. As her eyes slid shut, she slowly disappeared from the forest._

_The remaining kit opened her mouth to say something but widened it when she realized that she too, was also fading from the glen._

"_Make it stop! I can't be tied to her! I-" Her last sentence was cut off as she was whisked away to the waking world._

"_Well, this isn't how I'd thought it go." He mused quietly to himself. "Bluestar, what do you think?"_

_After receiving no answer for several heartbeats, the tom looked behind him. "Bluestar?"_

_The only sign that the former leader had been there were the shivering branches of a holly bush._

"_Foxdung!" he cursed. "She's gone to the Council!"_

**Haha! Finished chapter 2! I've been working all day on this, felt like I was thinking in mud. Monday I start school so updates will mainly be on weekends from now on.**

**Anonymous Fishy- Thank you sooo much for your review! It was extremely helpful and I will try to keep your points in mind! :)**

**xImagine Thatx- Yes, we have some super kitties! JK, I need to brush up on my cat facts. ;) I'm glad you like it!**

**Starwings22- Here's what happens while she's asleep…**

**Twilightmoon- Hi, new reviewer! **


	4. Chapter 3

Tangle opened her eyes with a pounding headache. She tried to raise her head, but it took to much effort so she had to settle for a sideways view of the brick wall she faced. She noticed that it was darker than earlier and wondered briefly if her vision was failing, but no, she realized that this must be "night". Her ability to see being nearly useless, she closed her eyes and cast out her strongest sense, smell.

Under the heavy and ever-present odor of Twolegplace, she could just smell her sister's sweet scent.

"Wisp?" her voice sounded horribly dry, she licked her lips and tried again. "Wisp?"

"Tangle! You're finally awake! Mama isn't back yet and I was getting a little scared with the dark coming on, don't you think it's kinda creepy? It's different than closing your eyes 'cause there's shadows and stuff, and I'm just so glad that you're awake." Wisp babbled happily, glad that her sister was no longer in Dreamland.

Blinking hard to clear the fuzziness from her head, Tangle carefully sat up. "You said Mama isn't back yet?"

Wisp's happiness evaporated. "No, and I'm starving! What if she doesn't come back?" she whispered, eyes wide.

"I'm sure she'll be back soon. She probably ran into some trouble and she's just waiting it out." Tangle assured her sister, remembering the cats in her dream. Surely they would have told her if their mother was dead, right? That is, if it really was more than just a dream that she met those cats. Speaking of which, she should tell Wisp about her dream and they could both figure out what it meant. She opened her mouth to tell Wisp about it when she was interrupted by a vision.

_A kit wakes up, opening her big blue eyes and yawning. She excitedly paws her mother's tail until she too wakes up, relating to her a dream about swimming. Something flashes in the queen's eyes. Love? Regret? Fear?_

_The kit asks something._

"_No!" The blue queen tells the young black and white kit. _

"_But why, Bluefur?" The kit asks innocently. "Why can't I tell Thrushpelt?"_

"_Because we are ThunderClan, we don't swim."_

"_It was just a dream!" _

"_Sometimes keeping dreams to ourselves is best."_

With the words ringing in her ears, Tangle felt the memory slide into her own. She could not tell if it was a dream, or one of her own memories. The message was clear, tell _no one_ about her dream. Was this what happened if your soul was joined to another? Foreign memories twining with your own until you lost yourself? The kit tried to shake the thought.

A howl broke the stillness of the night.

The sister's looked at each other, and quickly scrambled to the safety their nest under the dumpster.

…

After the first howl, many others had joined it accompanied by distant barks creating a symphony harmonious to none.

Between the constant howling and worry for their mother, Tangle slept restlessly with flitting dreams of gray fur with shifting blue and yellow eyes that reminded her of her mother, but terrified her at the same time.

Finally, when the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, did their mother return home, exhausted, with only a lizard to show for her efforts.

"Mama!" Tangle and Wisp chorused. "What took you so long?"

"My darlings, I'm so sorry I wasn't back earlier!" Their mother apologized, leaning down to give each daughter a lick. "I finally found this, but out of nowhere this dog pack showed up and I had to hide in a tree and they didn't leave until after moonhigh."

She flopped down to eat her catch ravenously while her two kits crowded her belly to nurse.

After finishing off her lizard, the exhausted queen turned to her kits, slightly rejuvenated. "What did you two do after I was gone?"

Looking at each other, the sisters made a silent pact not to worry their mother about Tangle's fall.

"We…uh… explored." Tangle began uncertainly.

"We climbed that huge mountain of trash and then we raced to the bottom!" Wisp meowed, eyes shining.

"I won." Tangle added smugly.

Wisp just rolled her eyes and continued. "Then Tangle took a really long nap."

"And what did you do while she was napping?" Their mother asked, amused.

"I fought off a ferocious dog single-pawed!"

"Did not!" objected her spotted sister.

"Did too!"

A tussle ensued, ending in a draw when their mother separated them when they rolled too near the glass.

After giving them both stern looks before carefully brushing away the troublesome glass, the queen asked her kits "How about some hunting practice?"

…

A moon and a half later, the two were "hunting" cockroaches as supplements for what little milk their mother could give them. Their hearing and sight improved each day, steadily making them better hunters.

Day after day, the prey that the kits' mother was able to bring home became less and less. Most days she returned empty pawed, with less milk for her quickly growing daughters.

Horrified by how thin her kits were becoming, the queen knew she would have to move to an area with more prey as soon as her daughters could travel, which was still nearly a moon away.

She cringed. Not only that, but the only two places with good prey were the forest where blood-thirsty Clan cats killed anyone who dared trespass, and the inner twolegplace, where dangerous gangs like the Greasers lay, and her kits' father.

"Mama?" Tangle croaked. "I'm so hungry." She looked at her mother, skin drawn back from her eyes, making them huge on her small skull.

The she–cat decided. Uncertain of the Clan's scruples, she gathered her daughters and readied herself for the inner twolegplace.

**959 words in this one, sloooowly getting longer, my goal is 1,500 words per chapter. Ugh, I fail.**

**Sorry it took so long, my excuse involves a xc meet and a baby squirrel named Squirt.**

**Anonymous Fishy: Hmmm, I'll keep that in mind. I'm trying to increase by 100 words each chapter; sorry they're all so short. I'm trying!**

**Twilightmoon: Thanks! **

**Whispersong: Voila. **


	5. Chapter 4

Tangle cast on last glance at their home through the new-leaf drizzle. She took in the dumpster, Stink Hill, the odd black pelts, all that she had ever known one last time. Her belly rumbled, reminding her why they had to leave. She turned her back on her once-home, and slowly trudged after her mother. She wondered how far they would have to go, and what her boarder, Mosskit, would have to say about it. She hadn't heard from the spirit in a while, only a fleeting memory of pouncing on a moss ball when she caught her first cockroach a moon ago. She blinked. _Moss ball? How did I know that green thing was called moss? I've never even seen moss! And… what is it anyway?_

"Mama?" What's moss?"

"Green stuff that grows on rocks in wet places, it's usually found in the forest. Where did you hear of it?" her mother asked, curious to as how her kit knew of the plant.

"I…I think I heard a rogue mention it once." Tangle saved herself, thinking of the cats that had occasionally passed by their alley. "I was just wondering."

"You wonder too much." Wisp snapped, hunger making the usually sweet kit tetchy. "You even ask questions in your dreams."

"Now, Wisp," began their mother as rain started to pour.

"And they're really weird questions!" continued the agitated kit. "I can't sleep! Just last night you asked if you could swim in the river and go hunting in the forest! What river? And what in the world is a forest?! Then you wanted a mouse and said something about blue fur!"

Unable to remember any such dreams including rivers or forests, Tangle simply shot back "Well, you talk in your sleep too you know. You wanted to eat crowfood!"

Wisp's pelt fluffed out to twice her size in anger. "I wish we could, because there's so much of it, and I'm starving!" she screeched, rain dripping from her muzzle.

"Well maybe you should eat some, 'cause you already smell like it!"

Her sister caught the spotted kit off guard when she leapt at her and bit down on her ear, hard.

Tangle unsheathed her thorn-sharp claws and swiped her sister's nose, feeling satisfaction when tiny red droplets appeared. She was about to deliver a nasty insult when her mother cuffed the back of her head, making her ears ring as she saw the same treatment done to Wisp.

"Stop it, both of you!" Their mother hissed, fury rolling off of her in waves. "You are nearly two moons old for stars' sake and I will not tolerate this kind of behavior! Now, hush, not another word out of either of you until we reach a resting place." To further separate the quarrelsome kits, she picked up Wisp by the scruff and placed her daughter on her back.

Tangle was shocked. In all of her 1 ½ moons, their mother had never lay a paw on them. Never had she shown so much anger. The black flecked kit lowered her tail in shame, she and her sister never fought, she felt sick when she remembered how _happy_ she had felt when she had slashed Wisp's nose. _Mama is right, _she thought. _We're sisters; we shouldn't be hurting each other!_

She looked up to where Wisp lay on their mother's back, dried blood flecked her muzzle. _I should apologize…but that was unfair!_

As she shook water out of her fur, another memory hit her, burning through her thoughts.

_A kit lay on her side in the nursery. Next to her, her mother and sister were sleeping and across from her was her brother, staring at the snow outside that kept her prisoner here. She was bored out of her mind and honestly, what was so bad about snow? _

_As she stared at her gray brother, it occurred to her that he was rather small. Really small, she was bigger than he was; he probably couldn't fight a squirrel!_

"_Hey,Tinykit." Her brother turned his head. "What?"_

"_Tinykit." She repeated. "You couldn't take on a squirrel!"_

_Her brother sniffled a little. What did he do? Why was Mosskit being mean to him?_

"_I can to take on a squirrel." He mumbled, turning his blue eyes to his paws._

_Mosskit was just getting started._

"_Well, it'd have to be a pretty small squirrel, and half blind for you to beat it! In fact-"_

"_In fact, a squirrel fell on your mother's head when she was a kit." Came a voice out of the snow. Slowly, two yellow eyes appeared soon followed by the shaggy shape of Goosefeather the medicine cat._

"_R-Really?" asked the small tom, perking up._

"_Yes, it was the first day out of the nursery for her, and she ran into the freshkill pile and the squirrel on top fell on her. Oh, yes, she was so embarrassed, not wanting to be the kit attacked by a dead squirrel!" The brown tom smiled fondly at the memory._

_Mosskit twitched her whiskers, the medicine cat was never this friendly, what was he even doing here?_

_Her brother happily went to lay by their mother to sleep, satisfied that he wasn't the only one with a problem with squirrels._

"_Goosefeather, I was just having some fun." The black and white kit began._

"_At your brother's expense? Mosskit, you must always cherish your siblings, you never know when you may lose them." Sadness seemed to cloud the tom's yellow eyes, but then he blinked, and it was gone._

_The medicine cat left, leaving the spotted kit to prod her brother awake and apologize. The cat's words chilled Mosskit. Did he lose his siblings and never get to apologize? Or was it going to happen to her?_

Was it going to happen to her? Tangle wondered. When she looked up, her mother was already several tail-lengths in front of her; she hurried to catch up on her small legs.

Panting, she called up to Wisp, forgetting her mother's silence rule.

"Wisp? I'm sorry." She choked out. Why was apologizing this hard? "You smell good and I shouldn't have scratched you."

"It's…alright…Tangle…" her sister sighed tiredly and closed her eyes once more.

As she looked more closely at her sister, the Tangle was shocked to see how thin her sister had become. Her ribs stuck out sharply from her pelt and her fur stuck to her body even more from the rain, making her even tinier.

The flecked kit looked down at herself and found that she too, was just skin and bones, paws too large and heavy for her bony legs. How much longer could they last like this? Mosskit was right; there was no telling if either of them would die without saying goodbye.

**1,116 words! And I didn't even have to try! I know it's still pretty skimpy compared to other writers but, well, breaking 1000 makes me happy. :D**

**Iceflower of ThunderClan: Thank you! I'm glad you think so! ;) Story AND author favorite? You make me blush!**

**Longwings: First of all, that is a really cool name. I'm glad you found it suspenseful, it makes me happy when readers get the feeling I was going for!**


	6. Chapter 5

Tangle opened her eyes blearily. The whole day she and her sister had taken turns riding on their mother's back. As she looked around for Wisp, she noticed that the rain had finally stopped, leaving her kit fur chilly and damp. Finally seeing Wisp lagging several paw steps behind, the spotted kit slithered off of her mother and trotted over to her exhausted sister.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Not very long," answered the blue she-kit. "The rain stopped just a little while ago, and the tree-lamps came on right after that. When do you think Mama will stop?"

Tangle looked back at their mother. The she- cat had been silent ever since her daughters' earlier spat, stopping only to switch kits from her back. Her sodden tail drooped, and her head hung low yet she still plodded on, grim determination set on her face.

Tangle increased her pace so she could trot beside the blue queen.

"Mama?" she mewed hesitantly. "Where are we going?"

"To inner Twolegplace." The queen answered in a dull tone, not even turning to look at her.

"Why?"

"There is more prey there."

"When-"

"Tangle, not now. I'm tired and I can't answer all of your questions!" The she cat snapped.

The small kit fell back, hurt. Was asking questions so bad? Why did it start fights in her family? Was she that annoying? What was inner Twolegplace? When would they get there? She was about to ask when she remembered, _no questions_.

Instead, she studied her surroundings. The dens seemed to get larger as they wandered deeper into Twolegplace; some were tall enough to tower over trees! And the monsters that she had occasionally seen from their alley now rushed up and down their Thunderpath, eyes glowing. The small kit stayed well away from them, fearful that she would be sucked into their path by their wind.

A squeal from her sister caused Tangle to whip her head around, just in time to see Wisp get splashed by a monster. The blue kit turned her head to wash herself when a screech from their mother stopped her mid-lick.

"Don't lick it! It will make you sick!" The queen bounded over to her kit and began to wipe her daughter's drenched fur with her paws. "Rub it off instead." She advised. "That way it won't get into your mouth."

Wisp blinked uncertainly at the older she cat and began to rub herself against the bricks of a Twoleg den, leaving streaks of mud and oil as she did. When she was done, her pelt was sticking out everywhere, making her look like a very spiny thorn bush.

They began to move forward again, and Wisp came to walk beside Tangle.

"You look like a bush!" she purred amusedly.

Wisp only gave her a withering look and tried to shake out her pelt, droplets of foul smelling water raining down on Tangle.

The kit quickly scrambled away from the oily rain. One drop landed on her nose and she sneezed, losing her balance on the curb and tumbling into one of the fast flowing streams draining into the gutter.

Coughing when some of the dirty water went up her nose, Tangle struggled for a pawhold. If she had been a bigger cat, she could have easily stood up in the water but being as small as she was, it was all she could do to roll onto her belly and unsheathe her tiny claws into the pavement to stop herself. The spotted kit's limbs trembled with the effort of resisting the torrent of water. "Mama!" she wailed, sputtering as the water entered her mouth.

Strong jaws lifted her out of the water and dropped her unceremoniously on the ground with a splat. Rising shakily to her paws, Tangle realized that her savior was not her mother, instead it was a heavily scarred brown tabby tom. As she looked up he smiled down cruelly at her. "My, my," he purred. "What do we have here?"

Dew

When she heard her daughters' yelp, Dew immediately swung her head around in time to watch the black and white kit being washed away, limbs flailing desperately.

"I'm coming, precious!" She leapt forward, only to hit the pavement when something held her tail down. Snarling, she turned to attack whatever kept her from saving her daughter. A skinny black tom attempted to leap at her, but was thrown of balance when her paw connected with his head, claws unsheathed. The tom quickly recovered, however, and leapt at her once more. This time he managed to pin her down but the half- starved queen was able to kick him off. Dew grew more and more desperate, knowing her kit was being washed farther and farther away each heartbeat and would eventually be swept into the gutter. She would not let that happen. Once again facing her opponent, the queen pounced and pinned the tom under her. Seeing the rage in her fierce amber eyes, the black cat's eyes darted around in their sockets, searching for a distraction. Finally, his pale green eyes landed on his partner pulling a limp form from the thunderpath.

"If you kill me," he hissed as Dew prepared to deliver the fatal bite, "she dies too."

The queen stopped mid-bite and turned her head to where the skinny tom was looking. She saw the menacing form of the second tom looming over her daughter and froze. This gave the tom the chance to push her off and pin her down securely. Dew tried to through him off a second time, but she had used up what little energy she had. After asserting that Tangle was safe-for the moment- she looked around wildly for Wisp. She finally spotted the grey kit under a sleeping monster trying to blend with the shadows but the second tom had sighted her as well and dragged her wriggling form out. He picked up both kits in his large jaws and set them down beside her.

"Isn't that better?" he meowed in a sultry voice. "The family is back together again; except for the father, but we'll fix that, won't we, Rat?" The skinny black tom nodded, green eyes glittering with a sick delight. "We will, Scratch."

Dew closed her eyes and took a breath. She had never wanted to come back here, never wanted to go back to _him._ But now it appeared that she had no choice but to reveal who she was. Either that or she and her daughters would be stuck in a never ending circle of misery. Of course, the truth that she was about to reveal would deal them a misery of its own.

"No, you won't." she stated firmly, concentrating to keep her voice from trembling.

"And why do you think that, pet?" the tabby queried, turning her head with his claw.

"Because my mate is Shard." She answered, staring defiantly into his pale blue eyes.

The two toms looked at each other and broke into purrs of laughter.

"You really think that we'll believe that load of rat dung?" The black cat gasped in between laughs. "No she-cat is worthy of Shard's kits."

The larger tom glared at the black cat. Clearly, he was the one in charge of the duo. "Quiet. Let me do the talking." He growled. The smaller tom shrank back with a scowl. Addressing the defeated she-cat, he asked "I have never head of Shard having a mate. What proof do you have?"

Dew looked pointedly at Tangle huddled next to Wisp in her belly. "Look at her pelt. How many other cats have that pattern?"

"Could've come from one of your ancestors." Rat grumbled.

Scratch turned and swatted him, claws unsheathed. "I said quiet!" The black tom whimpered and scuttled away. Turning back to the queen, he mewed "You do have a point, that pelt is very unique. But if you're lying…" He let the threat dangle like a piece of crowfood.

"Come on." He ordered the cowardly tom. "We're taking them to camp." Roughly prodding the queen and her kits to their paws, they turned down a smaller, more dilapidated thunderpath.

Tangle

They walked for hours until the sun began to peek over the horizon. By then, Tangle could barely keep up with the group as she stumbled along, her stomach yowling with hunger.

Finally, they entered a twoleg den with a sagging roof and empty windows that smelled strongly of cats.

Dozens of cats, many toms, parted before them to allow them through, curiously eyeing the prisoners. At the end of the long room, they approached a white and black spotted tom sitting on one of the ledges sticking out from a fuzzy hill-Tangle thought they were called stairs.

The black and white tom smiled sickly at the newcomers, looking at Dew in particular.

"Well, Dew, I'm glad you finally decided to stay after all. I was worried that some other tom would steal you away from me and we couldn't have that now would we?" He looked pointedly at their captors until they slunk off into the crowd.

"And these must be my kits." he purred, an evil glint entering his icy blue eyes.

**Sorry about the late update! I tried to make this chapter longer to make up for it! Well, we finally learned what Tangle's mother's name is! Was it confusing the way I did it, or was it OK?**

**Reviews: … No one reviewed. Last chapter must have been so bad you were speechless. :'( **

**But don't give up on me! I will get better! Tell me what you liked and what you didn't like by clicking this lovely little button down here.**


	7. Chapter 6

Their father sniffed each kit carefully. "No toms?" he asked, giving Dew a disgusted look. The she-cat only twitched one ear and stared stoically ahead. "Very well." The flecked tom meowed, returning to his place on the stairs. "I suppose I could make do with these… kits."

Tangle, not understanding the gravity of the situation, only understanding that she somehow disappointed her father, tried to follow him.

"Wait, Daddy, wait!" she called, panting as she scrambled over the steps. "I can be as good as any tom, you'll see! I'll be the best daughter ever!" Finally, she had reached her father who had frozen with his back turned in the middle of the stairway. When he did turn to look at his kit, his face was a carefully composed mask.

When he stared down at his daughter, a spark of hope ignited in her heart, but was extinguished when he threw his head back and laughed, sounding like a raven. His raucous cries stirred other toms to laugh too, until the sound of laughter rang in her ears. The flecked kit only giggled half-heartedly, unsure of what she had done, but happy that she had pleased her father.

"What is its name?" he called down to Dew. "Come here, my pet, and tell me!" Dew remained where she was and called something up, but her mew was lost amongst the chortles of the many cats.

Tangle flicked her small ears irritably. "You can ask me you know. She mewed. I'm nearly two moons old, I can talk!"

Her father lowered his head so she could see only his cold blue eyes. "Did you just talk back to me?" he asked quietly in a cold voice. The flecked kit blinked. "What's 'talking back'?" she asked innocently, blue eyes wide while her father's narrowed.

"Insolent kit!" The tom yowled, spit dribbling from his mouth. Tangle shrank back; what did she do wrong? Without warning, he roughly grabbed the spotted kit and shook her viciously. Tangle's world became the pain in her scruff where her father was shaking her and her tongue being torn to shreds by her own chattering teeth. Vaguely, she could hear her mother's pleads for him to stop and her sister's wail before she was flying through the air, sailing over the many up-turned faces, and crashing into the brick wall.

As she flopped to the floor, he father had already raced down the stairs and began to deal her heavy blows, claws half-way unsheathed.

"Never talk to me in such a tone again!" he snarled, slamming his large paw into her chest causing her to skid across the floor. Turning away from his daughter's broken form, he came face to face with his former mate eyes wide with shock and horror.

For a heartbeat, his cold eyes seemed to melt, but hardened as he ordered a brown tom to take them to his den. As he calmly pushed past Dew, all traces of his former were fury gone.

Dew gingerly scooped up Tangle, who gave a slight whimper from the pain in her chest and neck.

"Pathetic." A calico muttered nearby as they ascended the stairs.

…

1 ½ moon later-

Tangle opened her eyes and carefully rolled onto her belly, wincing when she felt a sharp pain in her rib. She sighed. It had been cracked when she had hit the wall, and broken when Shard had beaten her. She looked fearfully over at the tom now curled tightly around her mother, he'd let her nurse her kits for five sunrises when they had first arrived, but had forced them to eat a mouse on the sixth. Both she and Wisp had promptly thrown up their breakfast, their tiny stomachs unused to the heavy food; Shard had only scowled and taken the mouse away.

The spotted kit slowly stood and padded over to the entryway of the den and drug a rat over to where Shard and her mother were sleeping, and a scrawny sparrow over to where she and Wisp slept on a pile of paper. Biggest to strongest, smallest to weakest, just as Shard had drilled her. She pulled a few ragged feathers off the bird to add to their nest and took a hesitant bite.

_Maybe I won't puke as much today._ She thought hopefully. Lately, blood had been beginning to mix with her sick. The small kit didn't believe that that was supposed to happen, but she said nothing, not wanting to be beaten again for asking. Taking another bite, she felt her belly rumble in warning and she turned her head as a stream of red came out of her mouth. No longer hungry, she pushed the sparrow in front of her waking sister, who was now able to eat more and throw up less.

Envious of Wisp, Tangle looked at her puddle and determined that it was two times smaller than the day before's, but contained more blood. Satisfied that she was beginning to get more accustomed to solid food, she padded over to the smaller, see-through door to lick the condensation to rid herself of the aweful taste.

_I hope I get to DO something today, instead of pondering how much longer I can live._ She thought between licks.

While Dew had been correct that there was more prey in this part of Twolegplace and Wisp had grown some in the past few days, Tangle had remained the same, her body trying to mend her rib before she grew. Because of this weakness, Tangle could only wander the upper part of the den for fear of falling down the stairs and breaking her rib again.

When she got back to her nest, she saw that Wisp had eaten the rest of the sparrow and was now cleaning her pelt. Tangle noticed, jealously, that there was no new pool of puke beside her.

When Wisp had finished washing herself, she silently turned to her sister and began grooming her pelt. While Tangle cleaned her chest and ears, the grey kit washed her back and tail, parts that the flecked kit could not reach from the pain in her rib.

Shard stood and unwrapped himself from Dew, who was still (or pretending to be) asleep. After giving her a tender lick on the ear, he turned to his two daughters, eyes hardening as one groomed the other.

Addressing Wisp, he growled "If they can't do it on their own…" he paused.

The grey kit sighed before completing his mantra "Then leave them alone." Giving her flecked sister a last apologetic look, she followed the tom out of the room.

"It's not my fault I can't clean myself." She muttered.

Shard whipped his head toward his daughter, giving her a long, chilling glare, daring her to repeat herself. Tangle shuffled her paws and glanced down.

A few minutes later, Dew woke up and finished grooming her spotted fur and then also left, to make sure her former mate didn't hurt her other kit.

And she was alone, again.

Tangle explored the upstairs for what seemed the umpteenth time. There was the small den with shelves on her right; Shard's most trusted cats slept there. However, all had woken up earlier, leaving her utterly alone, not that she liked them anyway. They always stared at her with disgust. She continued down the hallway, passing two more large dens on her left and right, where every other cat slept.

As the lonely kit passed the stairs, she stared down hopefully for a glimpse of another cat, but the only one she saw was Scratch. She crouched, hoping he wouldn't ascend the stairs.

Her hopes were dashed however, when he easily bounded up the steps.

The black and white kit quickly scooted into one of the sleeping dens, afraid of what the tabby would do if he saw her alone.

As he disappeared into the door furthest down the hall, she laughed quietly at herself-all he was doing was using the dirt den! When the scarred tom reappeared and padded down the stairs, the kit sighed with relief.

She walked to the stairs once again and lowered a tentative paw to the first step, wincing when the stretch jostled her rib. She could almost reach the step with her paw; it was only a mouse tail away from it.

Trying to touch it, she tumbled off the top step and rolled down three before she was able to stop herself. Already a quarter of the way down, Tangle carefully descended the steps, rib aching dully.

Upon reaching the bottom, she realized that most cats were gone, except cats like Scratch, who were guarding the den. _Everyone must be hunting,_ she concluded.

Scenting the air, she found her sister's scent leading to the back of the den, which she followed.

She passed through a large den with a cave on one side and a smaller one with stone floor. Ultimately, the kit was led out of a door into the outside world. There, she saw her father training Wisp how to fight. Her grey sister looked exhausted, her eyes drooping and her movements sluggish. When she caught sight of Tangle, however, her eyes brightened and she ran to where she was sitting just inside of the door.

"You came down! Are you better now? Can you train with me? Mama will be so happy! " She bounced in excited circles around her sister.

"I-" Tangle began but her jaw froze as Shard padded up to them. "It took you long enough." He growled. "What fighting moves do you know?"

"Say 'swiping'." Wisp murmured into her ear as the spotted kit stared blankly at the similarly spotted tom. "S-swiping." She choked out.

"Is that all?" he asked. When the kit continued to stare at him with wide, frightened eyes, he snorted in annoyance. "Very well, then, let us begin." He turned and padded to the center of the clearing. Blinking, Tangle scrambled after him. Turning to face each other, she could help noticing how much bigger he was. "Attack me." Reaching out a paw, the spotted kit aimed for his foreleg, but fell when the tom moved unexpectedly out of the way. Picking herself up, she found him behind her, coolly drawing a paw over his ear. "Again."

They trained until the sun started to sink. After deeming both daughters "sluggish", he let them rest and went inside, calling over his shoulder that they would repeat the lesson again tomorrow.

Both kits collapsed on the dry grass. "Bet you're regretting coming down stairs now." Wisp huffed. Tangle drew in a few more breaths before answering.

"Not really, this is better than being bored." _And alone._ She added in her mind.

Then she remembered Mosskit. She hadn't heard from her in a while, maybe she was free from her? The memory of lying with two other kits entered her mind, as well as a feeling of annoyance answered her question. Mosskit's soul was still knotted with her own; she just didn't want to talk. She tried to probe the spirit's thoughts deeper, but Mosskit simply hid them, and Tangle left it alone, too tired to pursue anything but sleep.


	8. Chapter 7

Tangle awoke when she found herself sliding across the den and into the wall. "Get up." Shard growled. Gasping at the sharp pain in her rib, she carefully stood up and padded slowly back to where Wisp was being prodded awake by the tom. _Why did I get slammed across the room and not her? _The dazed kit wondered. Before she could think of an answer, a half-eaten mouse was placed in front of her and she absent mindedly took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. Turning her head to the side, she awaited the usual nausea. Today it was only a pink – tinted dribble of bile from her mouth; she purred at this small victory.

She felt a heavy paw cuff her ear and without turning she knew it was her father.

"Quiet." He growled over his shoulder as he stalked out of the den, flicking his tail for the sisters to follow.

Wisp followed mid-lick in her washing and Tangle gave up on her back and tail, it still hurt too much to twist that way.

"Now who looks like a thorn bush?" Wisp giggled in her ear before catching up to their father. Tangle twisted her neck to see what her back looked like, but could only catch glimpses of tufts of fur in her peripheral vision. Realizing that Wisp was already halfway down the stairs, she hurried to catch up.

_Just act natural, and maybe no one will notice you. _She thought stepping into the long den, feeling self-conscious of her unwashed fur. _Pease don't see me. Please don't see me. Please-_ A young white tom looked at her and whispered something into his friend's ear. Both turned to stare at her, smirking. Soon, the disheveled kit heard more whispers and a few muffled snickers. Pinning back her ears, she quickened her pace, trying to ignore all of the gazes boring into her pelt. The way to the door seemed to stretch longer and longer, and the muffled laughs only got louder. Finally, she reached the door and dashed outside, away from the staring.

Catching her breath, she scanned the yard; Wisp and Shard were nowhere to be found. The spotted kit tried to scent them, but came up with nothing. _Maybe they're playing hide and seek._ Tangle made a lap around the clearing, but couldn't find either. Already bored with the game, the kit inspected one of the flowers around the yard's border. It was rather fluffy, and yellow-orange-ish colored. Sniffing it, she was whirled into another memory.

_Mosskit was looking up at silvery tom with a plumy tail. _

"_And this" he pointed to some leaves. "Is marigold. It keeps wounds from being infected."_

_He then scooped up some of the leaves in his mouth, chewed them into a pulp, and spat it onto a small scratch on the kit's flank. _

_The kit looked up in blue-eyed wonder. "Wow! I want to be a medicine cat!"_

_The older tom laughed. "Yes, but then you can't get into scuffles with the apprentices, no matter what they say to you!"_

_This seemed to cause Mosskit some consternation. After a moment of thought, however, she curled her tail in delight. "I'll be a medicine cat and a warrior!"_

"_We'll see." Purred the silver cat._

As Mosskit opened her mouth to reply, a weight suddenly landed on Tangle's back, flattening her with an _oof_.

"Gotcha!" Wisp's voice squeaked in her ear.

"Grroffmer!" Tangle mumbled through the grass.

The blue kit rolled off of her sister. "We're doing surprise attacks today!"

"And you failed." A deeper voice added as Shard appeared from the bushes. "Always be watchful."

Tangle simply rolled her eyes. Unbeknownst to her father, she had been learning something way more useful than fighting. The secret filled her with glee; Shard didn't know what went on in her mind! For once, she could do anything she pleased.

When she turned around again, both cats were gone. _Well, I suppose Shard _does _have a point._

This time, however, she concentrated on every scent and sound. Finally, she saw a gray tail sticking out from a bush. With a yowl of victory, she pounced on it.

"Found you!" she crowed as Wisp stumbled out of the bush, shaking leaves from her fur.

"Let's see how well _you _can hide." The blue kit scowled.

Tangle flicked her ears. "Shouldn't we find Shard first?"

A sly smile crept over her sister's face. "We don't have to find him right away…"

Tangle blinked, confused, but then caught her sister's drift. "What's the rush?" The speckled kit agreed.

The sisters slowly padded around the garden, pausing every now and then to scent the air to at least make it look like they were searching.

When they passed the marigold, Tangle desperately wanted to share her knowledge of it, but thought of Mosskit's warning to stay silent. Wisp only blinked when she faltered at the plant. Feeling awkward, the spotted kit tried to strike up a conversation.

"So, did you learn anything else while I was…out?"

"Not really," replied the blue kit. "Only how to hide your scent and how to take on a larger opponent."

Curious now, Tangle asked "Could you show me?"

"Sure!"

Wisp led her to the center of the clearing.

"To hide your scent, you can roll in dew or a puddle. Shard prefers us to roll in puddles because they have oil in it and it makes your fur slick."

Tangle wrinkled her nose. "Sounds nasty."

"It is," Wisp agreed. "But it confuses your enemies' sense of smell and it makes it harder for them to grab you."

"What enemies do we have?" Tangle wondered aloud. "I haven't heard of any."

"Shard says that there is another group of cats in Twolegplace. Apparently, both groups were together at one point but then the other group betrayed him and went off on its own. We've managed to snag the better part of the twolegplace though; they have to live near the _Clans_." Wisp added smugly.

_I wonder why the Clans are so bad? _The spotted kit thought. _Maybe living in the forest with all those trees makes you crazy._

Tangle smiled to herself at that, but then remembered Mosskit and Blue-whatever. They didn't seem crazy or mean, despite giving her strange dreams. There was that goose cat, though, but she had a feeling that even among forest cats, he was considered odd.

"Do they ever come around here?" she queried, curious about the strange cats.

"No, they're too scared of us!" the blue kit gloated.

"But they won't be if you don't learn how to fight."

The pair jumped at the voice behind them; turning, they saw it was Rat and Scratch, the two toms that had captured them.

"Where's Shard?" Tangle asked.

"Shard is too busy to be training two useless kits." Rat answered haughtily, glowering at them with green eyes.

"We're to teach you how to fight in pairs today, since you obviously don't care about surprise attacks. Scratch added. "Let us begin." The two immediately split.

Tangle only saw a blur of dark fur before she was bowled over by Rat, her face pressed into the dirt.

Wisp, however, managed to evade Scratch's grasp by running, only to be caught when the tabby leapt in front of her.

"That wasn't fair!" Wisp complained. "You didn't teach us anything!"

The brown tom only smirked before rejoining his partner.

"We believe in on - the - field training.

The rest of the afternoon Tangle spent getting alternately pounced on by the two toms. She learned that getting jumped upon 10 times made her rib hurt unbearably, by 15 she had a nosebleed from being pushed into the ground so many times, and at 20 she finally passed out from the pain. Wisp learned how to run faster and climb a tree.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF SCOURGE IS GOING ON?"

Dew raced furiously into the yard, glaring at both of the toms.

Despite their larger size, both toms shrank at the enraged queen's words.

"We were-" Dew cut him off with a claw to the face.

"Get away from my daughters NOW!"

The black tom and tabby tom both scampered away, tails streaming over the ground.

The blue queen turned to Shard, who had suddenly materialized behind her.

"Is this how you're going to raise our kits?" She asked brokenly. "Hurt them and then hurt them worse, until they feel nothing? To be cold-blooded just like…like _you_?"

For once, Shard was at a loss for words.

After searching his eyes for a heartbeat, the queen deflated, morosely picking up her kits and returning inside.

"_What happened to you?" _She whispered.

The black and white tom remained frozen to the spot, working his jaw as if to say something, but finally shook his head to clear it before stalking away.

**It is done!**

**I'm sorry this is shorter, especially for not updating in what? Two weeks? I really appreciated all of y'all's wonderful reviews! :')**


	9. Chapter 8

For the next week, instead of fighting, Tangle and Wisp were trained to hunt by their mother. First, they only stalked the occasional bird in the yard but later began hunting around the block.

Tangle was surprised to see more abandoned twoleg dens. Some smelled faintly of smoke and ash while others just seemed too tired to stand straight, leaning on each other for support.

_Why did twolegs build these if they didn't use them? _The she-kit wondered. _They can still keep off the rain._

Before she could question more of the twoleg logic, a grackle landed nearby and began pecking at leftover twoleg garbage, unaware of the kit only a few tail-lengths from it. Creeping forward as stealthily as she could, Tangle was unaware of her tail swishing along the gravel in her excitement. The brown bird, startled, hopped a few paces away. Growling quietly to herself, the spotted kit stilled her tail and continued her stalk. Just as she was about to pounce, a siren sounded somewhere and the bird flew two streets down, out of her allotted hunting area.

"Monster bile!" she cursed, exasperated. She turned to go back to the den when she saw Wisp prancing proudly out of some bushes with a squirrel. Feeling jealous of her sister's catch, she looked over her shoulder at the infuriating avian. Glancing about her, she saw no monsters, and no cat was watching her. She quickly streaked across the two streets, careful not to alert her prey.

Landing neatly on the bird, she quickly nipped its neck, just as her mother had shown her. Triumphantly picking up her catch, she returned to the den, tucking into the grackle as soon as she had settled by Wisp.

"Nice catch." She purred, ripping off a few feathers.

"You're going to get filth all over me!" Wisp squealed, scooting away.

Realizing that she had been ripping out the feathers a bit _too _zealously, Tangle slowed down and muttered an apology.

They chatted amiably about this and that, until Shard poked his head around the corner.

"Tangle?" he asked. "I need you to come with me."

All of her suspicions about her father disappeared with the melting look he gave her, the look he usually reserved for Dew. With his eyes glinting with hope and head tilted to the side, the kit just couldn't say no, especially when he had even called her by name.

Both she and her sister rose, but his soft gaze turned into a hard glare at Wisp. The she kit slowly sank down again, puzzled by his change of emotion for her, and his eyes flicked to Tangle, who trotted up beside him.

The tom led her down the hall into a part of the den the spotted kit had never seen before. It was darker here, and there weren't as many cats.

"Where are we going?" queried the ever curious kit.

"I'm going to show you how to hunt _special_ prey." Was the spotted tom's only reply.

Finally, they turned a corner and reached an unused den. They dust in it tickled her nose.

"How am I supposed to hunt in here?" she asked spying no prey, only noticing a hole in the wall where a rat might have been able to get through.

"Well, you have to corner this prey." The tom said nonchalantly, stepping closer to his daughter. "And then you make sure they can't scream."

"What-" Tangle began before a powerful paw hit her rib cage, slamming her across the room and into the wall.

Gasping for air, the kit's battered ribs exploded in pain.

"Next, you make sure they can't run." Shard continued, strolling over and yanked her hind leg, nearly pulling it from the socket, making the kit whimper.

Clearly, he thought that he _had_ dislocated it, for he sat beside her, tail wrapped demurely around him, as if torturing kits was normal for him.

Thinking of the lack of kits in his group, he probably _did_. Tangle concluded with a shiver.

"And finally-"

A memory came to her, clearer and more enunciated than before.

_A lone bird was singing, most likely a cardinal. Standing by the camp entrance, she was facing her sister, Mistykit._

"…_a distraction." She was saying. "We need a distraction to get out of camp."_

_A distraction,_

_Distraction,_

_Distract._

As soon as it came, the memory left, leaving the word echoing in her ears, and the kit only heartbeats to forge her destiny.

"…KILL them!" Her father snarled above her, raising his sharp, sharp claws.

Tangle's eyes fell on the small hole, and then flicked to the hallway. _Maybe…_

"Mama?" the kit mewed, barely audible.

This was enough to distract the tom for a heartbeat, who immediately glanced toward the empty hallway, claws still raised.

Scrambling away from her tormenter, her own father, the kit scarcely made it through the hole before she felt her father's hot breath.

Shard, of course, being too big for the hole, bounded out the nearest exit, a window in the next den.

Half way across the block, Tangle tried to ignore the pain in her lungs as she ran.

Perhaps the only thing that saved her from death was when several monsters zoomed past after she had crossed the street, making Shard wait.

Using the borrowed time, Tangle realized that she could not out run her father, so she quickly turned left down a street, using the scarce vegetation for hiding, carefully running through a murky puddle first. Shard finally turned down the street, hissing in frustration when he lost her scent at the puddle.

However, this did not deter him and he continued scenting the air.

Painfully aware of how exposed she was in the half-naked bush, Tangle slunk around the side of the house. She raced across the yard and squeezed through a gap in the fence, sped across the next yard, and squeezed through another gap. Repeating this method several times and crossing a few streets, she could no longer hear her father's pursuit.

Finally, the spotted kit gently rested against a Twoleg junk container, careful not to upset her burning ribs.

She'd ignored the pain until now, just concentrated on escaping but now, dark was coming, and she was hungry. Smelling something vaguely edible within the container, the tired kit tried to push it over, but was too weak to do so. Finally, exhausted by the pain, her father, her flight, and just by everything, the overwhelmed kit fell asleep by the container.

…

Tangle found herself being nudged awake. Blinking her bleary eyes, she was surprised to see that it was light. She turned her stiff neck towards her awakener, and found it to be a pretty cream she cat.

"Hi! Are you new?"

"What do you mean, 'new'?" Tangle asked, confused.

"Why to the neighborhood, of course!" the she cat answered, beginning to look at Tangle as if she had two heads.

"I-I guess." She replied, struggling to remember why she was here, and taking in the manicured dens and grass around her.

The cream cat was about to launch another question when she was interrupted by an older brown she cat.

"Claire, stop bothering her, can't you see she's hurt?"

Claire gasped, as if just noticing the small kit's scratches and painful breaths.

"Why, your owners must be awful! Mine only make me skip a meal if I do something bad and-"

"Claire, could you please leave this kitten be? Can't you see that she's not a pet?"

The chatty cat's eyes widened with awe and a little disgust at Tangle's disheveled pelt.

"I see; she's one of _them._" She huffed, and then quickly pranced off.

The brown she cat rolled her eyes. "She's very sweet," she assured the wounded kit, who was absolutely bewildered. "…But not the brightest star in the sky." She winked conspiringly.

"By the way," she meowed, nudging Tangle to her paws. "I'm Cody."

**Sorry for the time it took for this, I had writer's block. :P If you noticed, Tangle has now learned the proper names of some things, such as 'streets' and 'windows'. Thank goodness she's a fast learner, or then I would have to type 'thunderpath' over and over. ;)**


	10. Chapter 9

Tangle was confused.

Cody lived outside, yet twolegs still owned her and she _chose_ to eat their rocky pellets. The kindly she cat assured her that they weren't that bad, but Tangle's sensitive nose said otherwise. Thankfully though, the kittypet knew how to hunt, and birds frequented the yard so the kit never felt compelled to eat the dry food.

Situated under a broad leaved bush, the black and white kit had a clear view of the yard, including the "house", as Cody called the twoleg den. For the past three days, Tangle had been silent, observing how the brown queen was let out in the morning and in when the sun set. To her surprise, many cats lived the way Cody did. Besides her and Claire, there was a fat old tom named Smudge, Cody's sister, Hattie, and a black tom named Butch who occasionally came to visit.

Behind the yard, there was a great expanse of empty land, most of it comprised of sand. There were a few large yellow monsters sleeping on it, but they never seemed to wake up.

"Why is the land so empty?" she asked of Cody on the third morning. "Where are all of the houses?"

Chuckling to herself, the older she cat replied "The twolegs were going to build another big street, but other twolegs don't want it because it will be too loud. The land back there used to be forested, but all that's left is the tree cut place.

"Can't they make up their minds?"

"Apparently not, it's been like that for a long time, but I wish that they'd hurry up and cover it, the sand is really bad on windy days."

"Then why clear it in the first place?"

"That's what I've been wondering for seasons!"

The two she cats turned to the new voice, which belonged to Smudge, huffing and puffing his way over to them.

"Smudge, what brings you to my yard? Shouldn't you be napping?" Cody asked drily.

"I heard that you got a youngster, and besides, I'm bored!" the fat tom fell over dramatically, his portly belly jiggling slightly; Tangle suppressed a giggle.

"You mean you want a new set of ears to tell your story to." The brown she cat meowed sarcastically, turning to leave. "Very well, I'll leave you to it. Don't wear her out."

Watching her disappear over the fence, the tom turned enthusiastically to Tangle.

"Now, when I was young, maybe a little older than you, I had a friend named Rusty who lived in the yard where Hattie lives." He began, nodding to the yard next to them. "Brightest coat that I ever saw, it gleamed like fire! Now, he was the same age as me, and one night, he went out into the forest, did you know that that used to be a forest?" ignoring her nod, the old tom went on. "Well, it was and, see, he went out there, I told him not to but he did! When he returned, that tom told me that he met these "Clan" cats, somethin' about thunder, and their leader, Bluemoon or whatever, asked him to join! Of course I didn't really believe it but…"

The word "clan" triggered something in Tangle's memory, or rather, _Mosskit's _memory. Cross that it was interrupting the story; she tried to ignore it instead of giving in like she usually did. _You can't control me! _She thought ferociously.

Mistake.

It was like holding back a sneeze, the pressure built behind her eyes until finally the memory was too much for her and she released it.

This time, however, instead of coming as a clear image, all of the sounds and smells mixed into a garbled mess in her head. It persisted for a few heartbeats and then receded, leaving her with a pounding headache and spots of light dancing in her irises.

"…and said that his name was Firepaw and that I was on his territory. Well, thankfully he still remembered me or he would've torn me to shreds!" Smudge continued, the sound of his voice grating against her ears. "Excuse me, I need to make dirt." She interrupted. Harrumphing, Smudge paused his story as the black and white kit escaped to the back of the yard.

Glad to be away from the noise, she glanced back at the tom once she was done and saw him curled up, back rising and falling slowly. Afraid of what catastrophe would occur if she woke him up, the she kit sought another source of entertainment.

Cody wasn't back from whatever she was doing, and after a quick tour of the yard, she found that it held nothing of interest to her, so she looked to the fence. Cody had said something about a treecut place…

…

_This was a bad idea. _ Tangle decided. The treecut place was a long, tiresome walk over sand and the sawdust irritated her lungs, making her rib throb when she coughed. The place was dull and creepy with its spindly pines and sleeping monsters, definitely not worth visiting, but now she couldn't go back, the wind had blown her scent away and all of the fences looked the same.

Another strong wind threw sand into her eyes and forced its way down her throat. Coughing, the rumpled kit desperately wished for water, when, she heard it. A stream. It didn't sound too far away, so the parched kit followed the noise.

"Stupid wind, stupid rib, stupid me…" She growled in frustration. Why couldn't she have just visited another yard? She wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for her curiosity.

Emerging from the last of the pines, she saw it; a wide riverbed with a small stream trickling down its center. Making her way through the mud, Tangle saw that the water was cloudy with bits of silt and leaves, but any water was better than none.

Lowering her head, she took a long sip, and then another. The small kit drank until she was full, and turned to start back when a flicker of white caught her eye. Spinning to look at it, she tried to recall all of the fighting moves her father had taught her. The fur along her spine prickled, someone was watching her.

Slowly backing away from the stream, the spotted kit turned to run, when a voice behind her mewed: "I wouldn't do that, kit. I'm much faster."

Ignoring the warning, she ran anyway, sand spraying out behind her, making the kit slip in her mad scramble. Sand was thrown into her eyes and her paws were swept out from under her. Pinning her down, a white she cat stood over her, yellow eyes burning with anger.

"What makes you think that you can just run away?" She growled in her ear.

Tangle closed her burning eyes. Oh stars, he'd found her. She'd never stood a chance against him; here was an assassin to finish the job. Why didn't she stay in the yard?

"You're trespassing on BloodClan territory."

BloodClan? Tangle had heard the term somewhere before, she was sure of it.

Mosskit, however, was disgusted and shared another memory with her.

"…_and Thrushpelt will attend." Sunstar finished, leaping off of the rock._

"_What's a gathering like?" Mosskit asked her father. _

"_Well, all of the Clans come and share news, but not secrets." He added with a wink. "You can make friends from other Clans and…"_

"_Tell me what the other Clans are like!" she begged._

_The tom rolled his eyes. "WindClan is swift and fiercely loyal, ShadowClan is sly and proud. RiverClan is strong and clever, and ThunderClan is-"_

"_The best!" interjected Mosskit._

_With a strange look in his eye, Thrushpelt replied "Yes, ThunderClan is the best."_

As the memory faded, Tangle could tell that Mosskit obviously did not believe that there was, or ever should be a BloodClan and was disgusted by the name.

In the meantime, the white she cat had grown agitated with her prey's lack of response.

"I'm taking you back to camp, you hear?" she snarled.

Realizing that this cat had nothing to do with her father, Tangle was able to find her voice.

"I'm sorry for trespassing; all I wanted was some water. If you let me go, I won't bother you again." She mewed timidly.

"And let you tell your friends where to find us? Sorry, kit, but you're coming with me." She nudged the spotted kit to her feet and shoved her in front of herself.

Stumbling forward, the speckled kit tried not to wince when her rib burned. She hoped Cody didn't worry too much about her.

**Sorry! Happy Belated Thanksgiving!**

**Coalstorm of WindClan: I love Cody too! And she **_**was**_** safe for a bit…hmm, I guess Tangle has been on her own odyssey, hasn't she? Not too much farther now, though.**

**Hollyleaf The Wolfblood/Icecloud447: Shard's had a bit of an interesting past, but yes, he shouldn't take it out on poor Tangle. :/ **


	11. Chapter 10

Dew

She wandered back from her hunt, eager to see her kits again. Her neck ached with the heavy weight of the pigeon she had caught.

Crossing the busy road, she finally stepped into the main den. Immediately, the cats there gave her guilty looks and fled from the den, like birds before a storm.

Senses on high alert, the she cat's blue fur rose along her spine. Something wasn't right.

"Tangle? Wisp?" she called; and a bit more sharply, "Shard!"

Wisp crawled out from under the couch where she'd been hiding and joined her mother, trembling and covered with dust.

"Where's Tangle?" the queen asked her daughter. The kit only shook her head fearfully.

Beginning to panic, Dew called again, "Tangle!"

The top step creaked, alerting them of Shard's presence. He descended the stairs with a look Dew knew too well; triumph. The scent of blood rolled off of him in waves, confirming her fears.

"You didn't… you, you couldn't have… your own, our daughter?" She choked out. The tom merely gazed at her, neither answering nor denying her question.

Dew sat down, numb. He had actually done it. Her own mate; her best friend, had killed Tangle.

The queen couldn't stand to be in the same den as him. She scooped up Wisp and raced to the door only to be blocked by two toms. Desperate, she went to the back door, the windows, all were blocked. From somewhere in the house, the despicable tom called out.

"Don't try to run, love. It's for your own good!"

Collapsing where she was, in some forgotten corner of the house, Dew relived her past. Where had she gone wrong? She thought that she had changed him!

**-On the first page of our story,-**

_A young she cat padded out from her cardboard den in the alley. Stretching, she looked around sleepily for something to eat. Spotting a moldy crust of pizza, she delicately nibbled around the mold leaving some leftover for Dapple, her sister. Sitting up again, she groomed her short, blue-gray fur, waiting for her sister to wake. Turning to start on her tail, she found herself staring into a pair of bright blue eyes. Startled, the blue cat tumbled backwards into her sleeping sister. Yawning, the calico stood and stretched before noticing their new companion. Seeing the strange cat, she swept her sister behind her, fur beginning to rise along her spine. "What do you want?" she hissed._

"_You two are on BloodClan territory. Join or die." The blue-eyed tom stated simply, without emotion._

"_Never heard of them. Go away or die!" the fiery calico retaliated._

"_Temper, temper, little she-kit, no need to bite." A second and third tom stepped out from behind the first, both clearly much older and more experienced than him._

_Daunted by fighting two more cats than expected, the two sisters began to back up, Dapple still protectively in front of Dew._

"_Look, if you don't want us here, we can move." Dew offered eyes wide. Dapple shot her a withering look. "This is the only place with prey that we've found in moons. I'm not leaving." She muttered and more loudly meowed "I don't know what you're talking about, but we're not interested." _

"_But didn't he tell you?" The ginger tom meowed. "Join or die." He stepped forward and neatly sliced Dapple's throat. Shock frozen on her face, the she cat crumpled with barely more than a gurgle._

_As the calico's blood began to pool on the pavement, Dew could only watch as if in a dream. Her sister couldn't be dead. This wasn't happening. Just some nightmare._

"_That's how you do it." The tom instructed the younger one. "Kills 'em quick. No scream, no pain. I can show you again if you like." He added, turning to the blue she cat, who was now laying by her sister's side, trying to nudge her back to life. _

"_Nothat'sokit'sfine!" The young blue eyed tom replied quickly, shaking his head vigorously._

"_Well, come on then." The third tom, who had been standing silently until now, was tugging Dew away from the body. Realizing that she was to be parted from her sister forever, the she cat bucked and struggled, all the while letting out a keening wail for her lost sister as she was dragged further and further away._

_Slowing down, the tom with blue eyes whispered into her ear, low enough for only the devastated she cat to hear, "Don't worry, I'll protect you. I promise."_

**-the future seemed so bright-**

"_It's red, all red!" Dew screeched in her sleep. The blue eyed tom carefully nudged her awake from his place beside her in the cardboard den they shared with two other trainees. Murmuring something into her ear, she hesitantly closed her eyes as he tried to lull her back to sleep._

**-but the saint turned out so evil-**

_Hunting, Dew found a kitten with green eyes. _

"_Can you help me find my mama?" he asked._

_Before she could answer, the kit was watching its intestines spill out before being decapitated. _

"_Shard! Why did you do that? It was just a kit!" Dew whispered, trembling as she looked at the tiny, blood-soaked body._

"_He might have killed you!" Shard yowled, eyes unfocused._

"_He was a kit!"_

_The haze seemed to lift from the tom's eyes as he gazed at the limp form. Shaking, he collapsed next to the body, nosing its bloodied fur. _

"_Why?" he moaned. "Why do you still haunt me?" Staring at the kit, he mewed quietly: "I'm so sorry."_

_Fear of her friend melted away to concern at the black and white tom's break down. Gently tugging the kit away from him, she cleaned its white pelt the best she could and dug a small grave._

_Fitting the body into a comfortable position, she turned back to her bipolar friend. _

"_The least you could do for him is to send his spirit off." She mewed quietly, hoping to coax his spirit back from whatever dark place it had receded._

_The tom slowly rose and padded slowly over to the grave._

"_May your path to the sky be clear and straight…" he began, and swallowed._

"…_And may you soar forever among the stars." Dew finished for him._

_Pushing earth over the tiny frame, the blue furred cat led him away with her tail._

_When they were nearly back to camp, Shard sighed._

"_There's something I need to tell you."_

**-I don't know why I'm still surprised.- **

* * *

Tangle

Wheezing her way over the sand, the tired kit noticed that it gradually became rockier. The unevenness felt strange on her pads, but didn't cause her much discomfort; she'd lived most of her life on the concrete, rocks weren't an issue.

Her captor had remained silent the whole way, only nosing her forward if she slowed too much. Finally, they reached a rock filled dip in the ground. To Tangle's surprise, there were a few cats milling about the place, but they immediately melted into the rocks when they saw her. The mysterious white cat herded her into the middle of the dip, rocks completely surrounding them. Then she left.

Trying to control her rising fear, the splotched kit parted her jaws and drew the scent of several different cats over her tongue. One was familiar, however.

"Tangle?" came the shocked voice of Cody, as she padded out from between the boulders with the white she cat and a grey tom.

"You-you know this kit?" the white she cat spluttered, surprise lighting her amber eyes.

"Yes, she's the one I've been telling you about." Replied Cody. "I found her a few sunrises ago. All I could get was her name, and I get the impression that wherever she came from, she won't be going back. Perhaps she could stay with you?"

Tangle was acutely reminded of the starry cats by their conversation, discussing her destiny without her. However, she was unruffled about it; she was focusing on the gray tom who had been serenely sitting, appraising her with wise amber eyes. Somehow, he exuded confidence, a quiet power, just by his stature. If anything was to be decided, he would have the final word on it.

Noticing her attention, he stood, silencing the other two with his plumy tail. Addressing the speckled kit, he asked: "What brought you to Cody?"

Staring at her paws in shame, Tangle couldn't bring herself to say that her own father didn't want her; she wasn't good enough for him and not much good to any other cat.

Mosskit buzzed in her mind, and Tangle braced herself for another memory. But this was only images and feelings slowly fed to her, as slow and careful as a kit's first step.

There was a tawny tom, with who Tangle, no, _Mosskit_ felt a strong love for. The next image was Mosskit herself sitting beside a brown tom. The two were obviously related, they were similarly built, but Tangle perceived no emotion for him, only a feeling strangeness and alienation.

Mosskit had had _two _fathers?

But on closer inspection, after turning the images and feelings over in her mind, she got the feeling that Mosskit had loved another cat as her father, not her own. For whatever reason, the spirit hadn't liked her actual father either, and distanced herself from him, refusing to accept the fact that he was her kin, which comforted Tangle to know that she and the enigmatic kit felt the same about their fathers.

Setting her jaw, she mewed "Shard didn't want me."

Nodding his head in approval, the tom meowed. "I am Gravel and this," he swept his tail toward the white she cat, "is my sister, Jasmine. Welcome to our Clan."

"But she's from Shard's group!" Jasmine burst out. "What if she's a spy?"

Facing his sister, Gravel calmly meowed "She's just a kit, and a maltreated one at that. Like Cody said, she most likely won't go back and if you need further proof, look at her eyes."

Jasmine studied her eyes and turned back to the tom. "They _are _green, but she could still go back and report on us. Maybe she was offered some sort of reward." She meowed, giving the kit a hot glare.

Tangle crossed her eyes, trying to see their color. _They're green? When did that happen?_

"She's just a kit, barely four moons old by the looks of it." Cody was arguing, and lowered her voice. "She doesn't know her way around here, she couldn't go back if she wanted to."

Holding Cody's gaze, Jasmine finally conceded with a terse nod. "So long as we watch her…"

"It's decided then," Gravel rumbled. "You –"

"Wait!" the splotched kit interrupted. Facing Cody, she asked, "How do you know all about this? Who are they? What's BloodClan? What's going to happen to me? "

Purring, Cody wrapped her tail around Tangle, giving her matted fur a lick.

"Hold on, little hedgehog, those can be answered over a mouse."

* * *

**Christmas Break! Whooooo!**

**The bolded lyrics are from "Love the Way You Lie" by Skylar Gray. Yes, I know Rihanna sings it, but Skylar wrote it and personally, I think her version has so much more emotion. I've been using this song as my muse to describe Shard and Dew's relationship. I plan on having another chapter with more flashbacks and Shard's POV continuing with the lyrics. And now questions for you:**

**Did the flashback make you feel more sympathetic toward Shard, or just confuse you?**

**Was the flashback itself too confusing?**

**Should I have been more explicit with the Mosskit memory? Did you get the idea of it?**

**Leave your answers in a review!**


	12. Chapter 11

Cody laid her tail across Tangle's back and guided her through the rocks to a shallow dip in the sand against a large boulder. In it was a black queen nursing three small bundles of fur. Beside her lay two more kits around Tangle's age, napping peacefully. The queen raised her head and smiled in greeting at the arrived pair.

"Hello, Cody. Is this the kitten you've been talking about?" she asked, resting her blue eyes on the speckled kit.

"Yes, Rose." Nudging a shy Tangle forward, she introduced them.

"This is Rose, and her kits are Pansy, Lily, and Thorn." She meowed, nodding to the white, tabby, and black scraps of fur at her belly. "And these are- oh, do think we should wake them?" The brown she cat asked, indicating the two older kits, one reddish-brown and the other a bright white.

Rose snorted, prodding the two. "They've been sleeping all day; it's time for them to have some excitement."

The reddish-brown tom sat up first, opening his jaws in a huge yawn. Blinking a few times, his eyes finally focused on the black and white kit in front of him. Eyes widening in excitement, he nudged the she kit next to him awake. "Wake up!" he mewed, "There's a new cat!"

Finally, the second kit lifted her head. "Nice to meet you," she slurred, eyes still closed. "Now I have someone else to play with besides my boring ol' brother."

"Come on, Berry, open your eyes. She'll have to know eventually." He said to the lethargic kit.

Growling softly, the second kit sat up and opened her eyes, which, to Tangle's shock, were a bright red.

"Why do you-"

"I'm albino, it's special." Berry hissed. Clearly the kit was asked the same question too often.

Turning back to Cody she asked, "I still don't understand how you know these cats."

The brown queen chuckled. "Then I suppose I'll have to tell a story."

The two other kits brightened at this.

"Tell the one about the stars-" Berry began but was cut off by her brother's request.

"No! Tell the one where you got captured!"

The older she cat silenced them with a look.

"How about I tell all of them."

Satisfied by this, the siblings sat down to listen.

"Many seasons ago, when this land was still forest, there were four clans." Cody began, settling into a comfortable position across from Tangle, who mimicked her actions, unsure of what to do with herself.

"There was ThunderClan, WindClan, ShadowClan, and RiverClan. "her eyes misted over as she began her story.

"The Clans were bound together by the warrior code. Warriors would take care of kits, elders, and each other, with a leader to lead them and a medicine cat to heal them. They lived peacefully with each other until the Twolegs came and tore down their forest; their home. I was caught by some Twolegs when I was wondering through one day and put in a cage, as was Leafpaw, a ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice. We were set free by a group of her Clanmates and I stayed at their camp for a few days where I saw how they lived. They were living here, in these very rocks, barely surviving. Their prey was gone, their camp was gone and their territory was gone. All cats were starving and the warriors, that's what they called their hunters and fighters, could barely catch enough for themselves, let alone other cats. But instead of breaking up and having every cat for themselves, they held together, feeding the old and the weak before they fed themselves. They even fed me, a stranger to their Clan and offered to escort me back to my Twolegs."

"But you said you were there for a few days, why didn't you go back to your home right after you were rescued?" Tangle asked, and was immediately hushed by the two other kits. Cody, however, paused her story and patiently answered her question.

"It was too dangerous right then, little hedgehog. Anyway-"

"Why-"Tangle began, but received a mouthful of Berry's tail. Cody nodded to her and continued.

"After I left, I couldn't stop thinking how having that code would benefit the cats living without housefolk in the city. I didn't know any, however, and I didn't want to leave my Twolegs, but I did become more adventurous, and I often came out here to hunt occasionally and think. One day, I met Gravel and Jasmine, and we became friends after I tended to a nasty cut on Jasmine's leg, so I told them about the Clans, they liked the idea, and here we are." She finished cheerfully.

Tangle couldn't help but feel that there was more to the tale, but it seemed Cody was done with her story. Perhaps she could ask Gravel… or one of the "Clan kits".

But she suddenly felt sleepy as the events of the day crashed down upon her. She swayed a little on her paws, doing her best to keep her eyes from fluttering.

Cody must have noticed because she led her a little away from the other cats and scraped out a nest for her in the sand and pebbles.

"We can line it with soft things later, right now, I think you could practically fall asleep on your paws!" she murmured in the kit's ear. The spotted kit nodded sleepily and settled into her nest and was fast asleep within heartbeats.

_Tangle awoke in the starry forest again and braced herself as Mosskit pulled herself out of her._

"_Are you always inside of me?" she asked._

"_What do you think?" the deceased kit answered irritably. Looking around, she scented the air, mouth partly open. "This way." She mewed and bounded into the bushes._

_Tangle scrambled after her, clumsily clawing her way through the brush. How does she slip through it like a fish? She wondered, pulling yet another clump of fur out. Finally, they stopped next to an oak with sprawling roots. _

"_Snowfur?" Mosskit called up. A squirrel leapt out of the tree as a white she cat with sparkling blue eyes poked her head out from behind a branch. "Mosskit!" she beamed, leaping gracefully to the ground and nuzzling her head. "I've missed you!" she purred, licking her cheek while Tangle still stood awkwardly apart from them. Watching them exchange greetings reminded her of her mother and Wisp. She missed them so much it made her heart twist. Shaking her head, she padded forward and shyly nudged Mosskit's side._

"_Oh, Snowfur, this is Tangle, she's the kit I've been trapped in for the past four moons. Tangle, this is Snowfur, my mother's sister."_

"_Well, Tangle, it's a pleasure to meet you." The white she cat meowed warmly. "How about I give you a tour of StarClan?"_

"_O-OK." The kit mewed, surprised at the offer._

_Unbeknownst to Tangle, Snowfur shared a look with Mosskit before the kit disappeared into the brush._

Mosskit

_She leaned into the run, enjoying the free use of her muscles. Leaves rustled under paw and twigs brushed her fur as she pelted through the undergrowth. All too soon, she stopped, panting, in the clearing that had begun her mess. Eight other cats were already there. She recognized Bluestar and Goosefeather, but the rest were unfamiliar. There were two, gray, she cats chatting, the younger seemed to be seeking advice from the older one, and the other four remained silently regal, sitting together off to the side._

_Mosskit trotted over to her mother just as the younger gray cat disappeared. _

"_What's going on?" she asked._

"_Your future is about to be discussed, young kit. I suggest you pay attention."_

_One of the four cats had stepped forward, a black queen._

_The young she cat bristled. "Just because I died a kit doesn't mean I act like one."_

_The queen rolled her green eyes. "I suppose that entering the Tunnel of Stars out of curiosity isn't acting like a kit?"_

_Mosskit was about to retort when Bluestar muffled her muzzle with her tail, instead addressing the black cat._

"_My daughter is not so foolish to do that, Shadow. Goosefeather, however…" she glanced at the tom who was busily grooming his chest as all eyes turned to him. He cleared his throat self-consciously. This was Mosskit's first time to see headstrong tom squirm and a smirk appeared on her muzzle. She treasured every heartbeat._

"_Well…uh, you see, you all know of Cinderpelt's predicament." He began, nodding to the vacated space next to the older gray she cat, which bristled slightly. "I think she should be given a second chance." There was a collective gasp around him. "You can't be serious!" A dusty brown she cat spoke up. "Cats can't just turn around in the tunnel and live again!" The ragged tom held up his tail for silence. "That is why they will be given a vessel for them to be reborn in, a kit who is similar to them, Wind. Of course, this first try with Mosskit is just a test trial, but next time it will be done perfectly, a neater choice of time and kit will be chosen."_

"_I'M JUST A TEST?" Mosskit exploded, clawing out of her mother's grip. "You said I had a destiny! A future! A second shot at life, and you're just now telling me that imprisoning me in that kit's body and mind is just an experiment?"_

_The two larger toms from the side managed to restrain the kit from tackling the old tom._

"_You worthless piece of foxdung! You trapped me in that stupid kit's body!" she screeched, clawing at the dirt, trying to free herself._

_However, the old medicine cat had regained his calm composure. "You _do _have a destiny, kit." He spat. "Be patient."_

_Mosskit growled, but was cut short when her muzzle disappeared, shortly followed by the rest of her body. The tom gave a quiet sigh of relief._

"_What about the other kit? Tangle?" came Snowfur's voice as she padded into the clearing, blue eyes glinting. "What's she to become?"_

_The cat's looked silently to the ragged tom, who only shrugged._

_Finally, the yellow eyed she cat mewed quietly "A puppet."_

_Unknown to them, a spotted kit gave a small gasp, amber eyes widening behind the bushes, before she woke up._

**Sorry it took so long! I wrote it, then procrastinated on posting it. Just so you know, YES, I know I wrote that Tangle's eye color was amber. However, when she and Mossy are in StarClan, they're separated, but when they're awake, they look out of the same eyes and yellow + blue = green. **

**So, this was kinda big in the plot and relates into the canon series. (Because who else but Goosefeather would mash two souls into one body?) ;) Did I do ok in explaining it or are you like: …wut?**

**xXHazelnutXx: Great!**

**Anonymous Fishy: So glad to hear from you! Shard has had an…interesting past to say the least. I'll get to it later on in the story. Glad the flashback made sense for the most part! Mosskit and Tangle really just share minds, and she can only communicate with her through memory unless they're dreaming in StarClan.**

**creeperkit: Here it is!**


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